Conventionally known is a technology for simulating how an article, referred to as a workpiece, is conveyed. For example, for the purpose of debugging a control program for controlling a conveyor such as a belt conveyor, a vacuum chuck, a pusher, and a lifter, known is a technology that causes the conveyor to operate in a simulated space based on the control program so as to check if the workpiece would be conveyed appropriately.
A possible method for simulating how a workpiece is conveyed in the simulated space includes detecting a conveyor having been brought into contact with a workpiece, and simulating how the workpiece is conveyed based on the operation of the conveyor upon being brought into contact with the workpiece. However, when simultaneously simulated is conveyance of a number of workpieces or operations of a plurality of conveyors, an enormous amount of computations will be performed to determine, for each of such elements, if each of the conveyors is brought into contact with a workpiece.
In response to this issue, some technologies for simplifying computations required in a simulation are known. An example of such a known technology simulates an operation in which a workpiece conveyed by one conveyor is transferred to and conveyed by another conveyor, for example, by preparing a list defining the order of the conveyors conveying the workpiece in advance, and causing the conveyance state of the workpiece to transition based on the list.
To explain using a specific example, when simulated is an operation in which a workpiece conveyed by a table is picked up by a lifter and transferred onto another table, an information processing apparatus prepares in advance a list for causing the conveyance state of the workpiece to transition from the table to the lifter, and from the lifter to the other table. The information processing apparatus then causes the conveyance state of the workpiece to transition based on the list thus prepared, so as to allow a simulation of an operation in which the workpiece is conveyed by a plurality of conveyors.
Related-art examples are described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-093751 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-010617.
However, in the technology in which the order of the conveyors conveying a workpiece is defined in advance, because the conveyance state of the workpiece is transitioned in the order thus defined, there is a disadvantage that it is difficult to allow the conveyance state of the workpiece to transition flexibly.
For example, in the information processing apparatus causing the conveyance state of a workpiece to transition based on a list prepared in advance, when a route for conveying the workpiece is changed, e.g., due to a change in the control program, the information processing apparatus needs to create another list in which the new conveyance route is defined.